Instead of Ring and Nest cameras

Cloud cameras with motion alerts and apps.

Worth the work

Frigate is better than the cloud services at the thing that matters, which is knowing a person is there rather than a leaf. It needs a Coral or a decent GPU to be pleasant.

You lose: The five-minute setup and someone else's storage.

Start here

Frigate

MITa weekendactive

Object detection that works. Needs a Google Coral or a GPU, and tuning.

github.com/blakeblackshear/frigate frigate.video

A database, object storage or mail config, plus backups.

Also worth a look

ScryptedApache-2.0an eveningactive
Brings cameras into HomeKit and Google Home. Recording is a paid add-on.
github.com/koush/scrypted scrypted.app
ZoneMinderGPL-2.0a weekendactive
The old workhorse. Reliable, and it feels every year of its age.
github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder www.zoneminder.com

What the desk has written

Facts checked 8 November 2026. Licences, activity and archive status come from each project's own repository; the verdict and the cost lines are the desk's.